June 28th, 2025, 3:09 pm
A very real and present danger with Trump is that he is so susceptible to flattery and obsequiousness.
There are not many things that he cares about; mainly just his own wealth and popularity. And he is very stupid and has the attention span of a goldfish, which probably feeds into his susceptibility to flattery and obsequiousness: if he can convince himself of someone's submissive loyalty to him, he can just give them free rein to do whatever without worrying that they'll betray his interests in his own wealth and popularity.
While his stupidity and his lack of focus keeps him from doing a lot of good things, it also keeps him from being enthusiastic about doing most bad things.
And that's where his susceptibility to flattery and obsequiousness comes in.
Trump probably doesn't care very much about deporting immigrants. His supporters are racist and xenophobic, so he wants to trouble immigrants enough to placate them ... but probably even his supporters are uncomfortable with the level of cruelty, arbitrariness, and lawlessness with which immigrants are being persecuted: his regime's immigration policies probably don't help his popularity, not even with his core supporters.
But his aide Stephen Miller wants the policies ... and his aide Stephen Miller is fawning and subservient to him. So he doesn't question Miller and the policies continue.
There are probably less wholesale parallel situations with regard to the Gazan Genocide and the attacks on Iran, probably with more than one person promoting them, but I think there is a pattern and a situation ripe for malignant exploitation: whatever evil thing you want to do, just get into Trump's good graces, convince him of your loyalty and subservience, and proceed with your plans.